Less than Significant Impact with Mitigation Incorporated. The conceptual site plan for the project would change the existing fallowed and planted agricultural fields to a mosaic of wetlands and uplands to create suitable habitat for the giant garter snake. In the first phase, approximately 78 acres of wetlands would be graded interspersed with 57 acres of mounded upland habitat. In the second phase, another 183 acres of wetland and upland habitat would be constructed Two separate ordinances that apply to the project require the project to mitigate for the loss of agricultural lands. Yolo County has an adopted Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (Section 8-2.2416 of the Yolo County Code) which requires mitigation for loss of agricultural lands at a ratio of one acre conserved through easement, for every acre converted from an agricultural to a non- agricultural use. The ordinance does not require any mitigation when there is a conversion of one agricultural use to another agricultural use allowed under the existing agricultural zoning. The ordinance states that conversion from agricultural use to habitat use is exempted from the mitigation requirements “so long as the restoration or conversion is incidental to or ancillary to the agricultural uses on the parcel.” The existing agricultural uses of the property include previous rice production (now fallowed) in the Phase 1 southern field and corn production in the northern Phase 2 field. The uses would be replaced with habitat restoration on 137 acres (Phase I) and ultimately, on 320 acres (Phase II). The two phases of the project will be required to mitigate for the loss of agricultural land under the ordinance because the main use of the land would become habitat and the primary use of existing rice production would be replaced. In addition, the recently adopted Habitat Mitigation Ordinance (Chapter 10 of Title 10 of the Yolo County Code) requires a finding that habitat projects that involve “any conversion of farmland to habitat or other non-agricultural uses will be mitigated in accordance with Yolo County Code Section 8-2.2416 (notwithstanding anything to the contrary set forth therein regarding its application to habitat projects) or, subject to the approval of the Board of Supervisors, that the applicant will implement an alternative approach to addressing the conversion of farmland that provides an equal or greater level of mitigation.”
Less than Significant Impact with Mitigation Incorporated. The applicant’s consultant, AECOM, prepared a Delineation of Waters of the United States for the 320-acre site and submitted it in August, 2010 to the U.S. Corps of Engineers for verification. The Corps concurred with the delineation that approximately 174 acres of irrigated wetlands and other water bodies within the survey area may be jurisdictional “waters of the United States” (USACE, 2010). The potential 174 acres of jurisdictional wetlands are present primarily within the Phase 1 portion of the larger 320-acre site. Mitigation Measure BIO-5: Implement Mitigation Measure BIO-2.
Less than Significant Impact with Mitigation Incorporated. No cultural resources are known or suspected to occur on the project site. Phase 1 has been surveyed and no cultural resources were identified. However, the Phase 2 area has not been surveyed. If the project proceeds to Phase 2, a detailed survey will be required prior to issuance of a grading permit for Phase 2 construction. In addition. a limited survey will be required to ensure that any small portion of the Phase 2 site that is used for fill for Phase 1 will not impact any resources.
Less than Significant Impact with Mitigation Incorporated. The applicant has submitted extensive materials evaluating potential hazards and hazardous materials onsite. All of the materials are cited in the Bibliography and are available for public review at the Planning Division. The material submitted with the project application (listed chronologically in reverse order) includes the following: (1) Soil remediation cost estimate (January 30, 2009), (2) Amendment to Remedial Action Plan (January 14, 2009), (3) Orange County Health Agency Approvals (January 16, 2009 and October 21, 2008), (4) Remedial Action Plan (October 13, 2008), (5) Limited Phase II Environmental Site Assessment (August 21, 2008),
Less than Significant Impact with Mitigation Incorporated. The project area was developed in agriculture from at least 1938 to 1953. The transfer station had been constructed onsite by 1968. Residential development had occurred north of the site in 1968 and the residential development on the east and south occurred by 1997. The facilities onsite today differ from 2008 when additional facilities and equipment were present onsite. The former aboveground and underground tanks, pump house, loading rack and pipelines indicated in Exhibit 13 were removed. Today these facilities have been removed from the project site. The inactive facilities onsite in October 2008, which were subsequently removed, were: (1) Pump house/xxxxxx laboratory structure located midway along the southern property boundary, (2) Septic tank located southeast of the pump house, (3) Four anode xxxxx located along the southern berm of the AST containment, (4) Two catch basins, one in the southeast corner of the site and one 100 feet east of the pump house, (5) Two meter conjunction areas 20 feet northeast of the pump house, (6) Inactive pipelines onsite, including one that entered the southeast corner of the property and two located under Site Drive. All of these facilities were subsequently removed. Former facilities that were already removed in October 2008 included the following: (1) 1,000 UST located under the loading station/truck rack area and a UST under the northeastern corner of the pump house spill enclosure were removed in 1993, (2) One AST (gallons unknown) on the northwest corner of the site north of the truck rack removed in 1993, (3) Two 55,000 barrels crude oil ASTs (AST S3 and AST S4) located in the northern portion of the site removed in 1998 and 2008 respectively, (4) Truck rack removed in 1993,
